Abraham Banda

I am a Zambian citizen aged 33, pursuing a master’s degree course in MSc Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) Engineering at the University of Leeds. I am finishing my studies in August, 2016. I studied my Bachelor’s degree course in Environmental Engineering at the Copperbelt University in Zambia and I graduated with a merit in 2010.
I am a self-motivated hardworking individual who works with minimum supervision. I have been working for the government of Zambia as Senior Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) engineer in charge of 9 districts in Eastern province under the Ministry of Local Government and Housing for 5 years before I came to pursue my MSc studies in the United Kingdom. During the course of my work I have gained experience in water, sanitation, Environment and health (WASH) programs implementation; for instance as a provincial coordinator for WASH programs, I have managed to build capacity in district WASH coordinators under my supervision in conducting Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programs as I am one of the trained champions, operation and maintenance (O & M) of water facilities, borehole drilling supervision, solid waste management, hygiene promotion and contract management. I have experience in monitoring and evaluation of water, sanitation and health projects; I managed to monitor WASH projects implemented by government in the 9 districts and participated in joint monitoring of projects implemented by partners such as UNICEF, GIZ, PLAN International and World vision in the province. i have manged to monitor the service provision by the Eastern water and sewerage company in the province and give reliable reports about the company's operation to the ministry headquarters. In addition, I am the coordinator for the provincial water, sanitation and health education (PWASHE) committee in the province which is the forum for discussing all WASH and public health related projects in the province, hence I have gained good experience in coordinating and implementing WASH programmes and projects.
I have good communication and writing skills; I can speak and write in English without difficulties and can speak and write in other various local languages; I am capable of working under pressure and easily adapt to different environments. In addition, I have good facilitation skills, capacity building skills, leadership and management skills. Lastly, I am a qualified driver with a manual driver’s license of more than 3 years of experience. I wish to acknowledge my deficiency in other international languages, however I am willing to learn.